1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a vibrating footwear device and an entertainment system for use therewith to enhance the sensory perception of an entertainment experience. More specifically, the vibrating footwear device includes at least one actuator that is operable to provide vibration, which reproduces the sensation of ground vibration to enhance an entertainment experience. The vibration provides simulated force feedback resonating from the ground similar to that which would be present at a live event, which dramatically improves the experience of listening to music, watching a movie or playing a video game, for example. This device expands the audio event outside the confines of the head to involve the body in an immersive physically felt portable experience.
2. Related Art
There are a wide variety of portable entertainment devices available to consumers today, including MP3 players, portable DVD players and even cellular telephones that can store and/or reproduce recorded music or movies. Most of these devices provide stereo sound to users via conventional earphones. While earphones provide suitable sound, they typically cannot provide a fully satisfying sensory experience given their limited functionality, which narrowly focuses the sound to only one sensory channel, the ears.
While humans gather a significant amount of pitch and localization information through their ears, humans depend on other senses to augment the sounds that they hear. For thousands of years, ground vibrations have augmented hearing. That is, in many situations, even as one hears a sound, they are also sensing non-audible vibrations associated therewith that provides additional information that is often necessary. Indeed, even human skin and muscle tissue is sensitive to sound energy waves to provide additional information regarding the sounds that we hear. For example, consider ancient man out on the plain, in the path of stampeding animals. While the sound of such a stamped would be audible, it is the tactile vibrations associated with the stampede that provide the additional information that will trigger the individual to realize the danger that they are in. That is, the forces of ground vibrations sensed through the nerve receptors of the individual's feet provide additional information regarding the approaching danger.
In another example, consider an observer 5 positioned close to an exploding volcano 8 as illustrated in FIG. 1, for example. The sound waves from the explosion will reach the observer's ears in the normal course of events. However, the force of the explosion also cause vibration of the ground under the observer's feet, as indicated by the reference numeral 9 and can be felt through the left and right feet 6, 7 of the observer as well. These vibrations travel up the observer's legs 10, 11 and also trigger nerve impulses that also travel up the body to the brain 12. The brain then assimilates the audible sounds with the vibrations felt and provides a clearer picture of the situation that the observer finds himself in. Reproduced audio to the ears only can not recreate the immersive experience described above.
In particular, the human body has developed such that such vibrations are primarily sensed through our feet. Naturally, other parts of our bodies are sensitive to vibration, but humans have evolved in such a way that their feet are the primary source for gathering information about these vibrations. This development is to be expected since feet are typically in the closest contact with the ground, which is also a good medium for the transmission of these vibrations. Indeed, even in modern society, where most people wear shoes, without thinking about it, humans collect a vast amount of information from vibrations that are sensed by their feet. Consider the simple case where an object is dropped near an observer. While the observer may have some idea of where the object was dropped based on the audible sound, the vibration of the floor provides force feedback information that can aid the observer in pinpointing the object. Therefore, a stereo field may be heard by the ears to identify the whereabouts of a sound source, but also by the nerve receptors in the feet help aid sensory perception to determine the direction, size and weight of the object dropped. We humans perceive live music and other events via simultaneously coordinated multiple sensory ‘channels’ (sound, vision, touch), the experience of a live event is more convincing than a simple audio recording-in other words, the circuit between the stimulus event and perception is complete.
Modern rock concerts often take advantage of the unique sensory input provided by the listener's feet. As can be seen in FIG. 2, for example, audio engineers in such concerts may pan certain instruments from left to right in order to manipulate the stereo field of vibrations that reach the listener, these vibrations travel through the floor to the nerve receptors in the left and right foot. The left and right speakers 16, 17 provide sound waves based on music performed by the band 15 and the live engineers. The arrows 18, 19 represent the vibrations produced by the band and speakers that travel to the listener's feet 13, 14. These vibrations are sensed by the listener's feet and conveyed up their legs 20, 21, by way of nerve impulses to the brain. There, the information regarding the vibrations is synthesized with the auditory information (obtained via the user's ears 22, 23) in the sensory cortex of the brain to provide an enhanced music experience where the listener both hears and feels the separate vibrations of the stereo field of the music. It is noted that both the band 15 and the speaker output energy, represented by the arrows designated by reference numerals 24, 25, contribute to the vibrations felt by the user. In addition, visual information from the user's eyes also contributes to the overall experience, as well, and is synchronized with the audible and vibration information in the sensory cortex. The presence of the stereo signal exists in virtually all produced music. Therefore it would be a great advantage to provide a device, which makes use of an already evolved sensory channel in a human to enhance the stereo image of any audio entertainment media by force feedback vibration simulating a live event felt through the feet.
Thus, audible information (typically in the range of 20-20,000 Hz, especially when only presented to the ears) represents only a portion of the information that sound energy conveys to observers. While home theatre surround sound type systems attempt to convey some of these vibrations using a sub-woofer to enhance low frequency sound elements, the results are unsatisfactory. The size of such devices prohibits them from being portable while the effect of such devices cannot be duplicated using conventional earphones.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a device that allows for an enhanced entertainment experience by allowing a user to feel, as well as listen to the stereo vibrations of music, movies, or other media, on a portable device.